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in: Georgia, 1976, Disappearances,
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Kyle Clinkscales

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Clinkscales kyle

Kyle Clinkscales

Real Name: Kyle Wade Clinkscales
Nicknames: No known nicknames
Location: LaGrange, Georgia
Date: January 27, 1976

Bio

Occupation: Bartender
Date of Birth: October 2, 1953
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 155 pounds
Marital Status: Single
Characteristics: White male with brown hair and hazel eyes. He previously fractured his right ring finger and chipped the ulna in his left arm.

Case

Details: Twenty-two-year-old Kyle Clinkscales was a junior at Auburn University in Alabama. He also worked as a bartender at the Moose Club, which was located in his hometown of LaGrange, George. At around 11pm on the night of Tuesday, January 27, 1976, he left the Moose Club, planning to make the thirty-five mile drive back to Auburn University. However, he never arrived; neither he nor his car have ever been found. His car was a white two-door 1974 Ford Pinto Runabout with the Georgia license plate number CEF-717 and the VIN number 4T11Y207954.
Kyle's parents, John and Louise, did not realize he was missing until the following Sunday, when he did not call them as usual. They went to his apartment in Auburn and learned from his roommate that he had not been there since Tuesday. They reported him missing to police in Auburn and LaGrange. At first, it was believed that he left on his own accord; he was not doing well at college and had previously dropped out of another school. However, as time passed and no one heard from him, the police and his family began to suspect that he met with foul play.
In 1981, a man calling himself "Danny Moore" came forward, believing that he was Kyle. He claimed to have had amnesia after getting in a car accident in 1976. When he wrote a letter to John and Louise, they believed it matched his handwriting. However, dental records determined that he was not Kyle.
On May 27, 1987, a man walking his dogs along Flat Shoal Creek, south of LaGragne, found Kyle's Exxon credit card. It was still in "excellent" condition. It expired in 1973, three years before he vanished. However, no new evidence came up from the discovery. John and Louise noted that his wallet had been stolen in 1973, so it is possible that it came from there.
Suspects: None known
Extra Notes:

Results: Solved - In 1996, authorities received a tip that Kyle was murdered and then dumped in a hole behind a local home. However, a search of the property turned up no evidence. In 2005, a thirty-five-year-old man contacted John and Louise and told them that when he was seven, he witnessed the disposal of Kyle's body. He claimed that Kyle's killer was a man named Ray Hyde, who died in 2001. He said that Kyle's body had been covered with concrete, stuffed in a barrel, and dumped in a private pond. He also claimed that his grandfather had helped dispose of the barrel and that Hyde had threatened them both. The tipster's information led to the arrest of sixty-three-year-old Jimmy Earl Jones in April 2005 and Jeanne Pawlak Johnson in June.
Jones was charged with concealing a death, hindering a criminal's arrest and two counts of making false statements. Johnson was also charged with concealing a death, false statements, and obstructing justice. Witnesses placed her at Hyde's home that night, but she denied being there. Investigators learned that Hyde was a member of the Moose Club. They believed that Hyde and Kyle met through it. They also believed that Kyle was killed because of his knowledge of Hyde's criminal activities.
Jones later told police that on the night Kyle vanished, he arrived at Hyde's home and discovered Kyle's body; he had been shot to death. He then helped Hyde drag it into his shop. Before Hyde died, he told Jones that after placing it in the pond, he went back, recovered it, and took it to an unknown location. However, Jones later made other statements to police that contradicted this one. As a result, they dismissed him as an unreliable witness. He later pleaded guilty to making false statements and was sentenced to nine years in prison. He was released after serving seven years. It is not known if Johnson was ever tried for the charges against her.
On December 7, 2021, a witness called the police and reported seeing a car submerged in a creek in Cusseta, Alabama. Later that day, it was removed from the creek and identified as Kyle's through its license plate and VIN number. Inside, they found his wallet and credit cards, along with human remains. In February 2023, DNA testing confirmed that the remains were Kyle's. His cause of death has yet to be determined. Authorities are still actively working to determine how he died.
Sadly, John passed away in 2007 at the age of eighty-two and Louise passed away in January 2021 before this case was solved.
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